


Kitchen Duty

by Verocity



Category: DBSK|Tohoshinki|TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe - Restaurant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-08
Updated: 2013-10-08
Packaged: 2017-12-28 20:24:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/996189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verocity/pseuds/Verocity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s a crazy world where five twenty-something year-olds can keep a restaurant running.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kitchen Duty

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://verocity.livejournal.com/2440.html).

A perfect job interview goes like this: the applicant shows up earlier than scheduled, waits patiently to be acknowledged, meets the manager, bows politely, answers questions with confidence and humility, agrees on a reasonable salary, and gets told when to start. The applicant then goes home and tries to balance hopefulness with apprehension, and frets about wardrobe and making the right first impressions with the rest of the staff.

By those standards, YooChun’s interview was a disaster.

For one thing, he didn’t quite imagine his boss to be so... he had a word, but it was a wholly inappropriate way to refer to one’s boss.

In his defense, he thought the manager would be quite a bit older. Someone in his early thirties, let’s say. Maybe even in the late twenties.

So when a tall, well-dressed, well-built young man about YooChun’s age sat in front of him at one of the restaurant’s tables, he made the reasonable assumption.

"Too early to cruise, don’t you think?" YooChun asks with a wink.

"I suppose. But my restaurant isn’t exactly a hot spot for dating," the man answers as he pins on his nametag with the word _Manager_ gleaming brightly. "Jung YunHo. Pleasure to meet you," he says, offering a hand.

YooChun’s mortification was made apparent by staring at YunHo’s hand for a few seconds before gathering his senses enough to shake it... and even then with minimal energy. The fact that he’s blushing very strongly and couldn’t look at YunHo’s face didn’t help at all. "Park YooChun. Dumbass extraordinaire."

"Ah," YunHo nods, his face serious but eyes amused. "You’ll fit right in. I hire a lot of dumbasses."

"Takes one to hire one," a very tall busboy says as he walks past them without stopping.

"Or three," another one calls from across the room, his ass wiggling as he wipes a table.

"Hey!" a voice calls from somewhere YooChun assumes must be the kitchen. "Whatever it is, don’t count me in!"

And the three dissolve into banter as the busboys do their job. YunHo rests his face on his hand, but YooChun could see a faint smile trying to force its way out.

* * *

That pretty much sets the tone for the interview. YooChun talks about his work experiences in America, which includes (but not limited to) waiting on tables, cleaning toilets in theaters, being a hospital janitor, a brief stint as a photocopying attendant, washing clothes, and suffocating in a fast-food mascot.

YunHo takes all these in without writing anything down (when YooChun thought of it, YunHo didn’t even ask for his personal details) and honestly told him what to expect from the job: clearing tables, taking orders, mopping floors and cleaning windows, and if he missed his theater job the restaurant’s toilets would be a passable substitute. "But you’ve already done these before so there shouldn’t be any problems," YunHo wraps up. "Are you handy in the kitchen?"

"I don’t need him in the kitchen!" the unseen cook yells, who either has very good hearing or has nothing better to do. 

"Say that again when the dinner rush comes!" the tall busboy shouts back as he wipes the front windows clean. The other one just laughs and YooChun finds it contagious.

"Obviously, we’re very relaxed around here," YunHo says, trying – and failing – to pretend he has some control over his staff.

YooChun grins. "You sure you’re ready for another dumbass? ‘Cause I’m taking the job."

"Apparently, I can get used to anything," YunHo answers, and YooChun believes him. "When can you start?"

"Whenever you need me," YooChun says readily.

YunHo nods, an action that YooChun thinks he’ll see a lot from now on. "JunSu!" he says loudly to the shorter busboy. "Show YooChun the works. I want him ready before the crowd comes."

"You got it, hyung," JunSu says as he comes over.

"Wait – right now?"

YunHo winks at him. "The dinner rush can get pretty crazy around here."

Just because the interview was a disaster doesn't mean things didn't work out.

* * *

YooChun soon learns that YunHo was kidding about the dinner rush: crazy was, in fact, _an understatement_.

Briefly, YooChun wonders why so many people cram themselves in a small restaurant (" _Restaurant_? Right. And the Andong lake is an ocean," the tall busboy, ChangMin, scoffs later on) when there were obviously other, less-crowded choices along the same street. He expresses his thoughts with polite bewilderment after the last of the customers leave and YunHo triumphantly flips the door sign to "Closed".

"It’s because we’re pretty!" JunSu exclaims before he disappears into the kitchen with a tray in each hand filled with precariously-balanced bowls and plates. The sounds of clinking ceramic and running water soon drifts from the kitchen.

ChangMin shakes his head. "JunSu-hyung really needs to have his eyes checked." He was wiping at a soy sauce stain on the ceiling and no one could explain how it got there – and wouldn’t have noticed at all if it hadn’t been steadily dripping on a table that JunSu swore he already wiped three times. ChangMin, with his obscene tallness, was best suited for cleaning it up.

"Well, if it’s not the pretty, then what?" YooChun asks, playing along. His stomach growls.

YooChun wonders if the smirk was a permanent feature on ChangMin’s face. "You’ll know when we get our dinner from the kitchen."

"That’s gonna be a problem," YunHo answers as he exits the kitchen with a sheaf of papers in hand. "We’re cleaned out. Only things left are a bowl of sour kimchi and half a boiled egg."

The look of stricken horror dawning on ChangMin’s face was absolutely priceless. "Hyung…"

"We’ll just eat out, no problem. Call me when they’re done with the dishes," YunHo says as he disappears into his office-slash-cashier’s room.

YooChun remarks on the irony of a restaurant not having enough food for its staff. ChangMin’s retort is cut short when tired but amused laughter drifts from behind the kitchen’s door. He stomps over in outrage. "YAH! Less laughing, more washing!"

YooChun considers going over to help (and thereby bringing dinner that much closer), but by his estimates it would be asking too much of the tiny kitchen to hold four people, one of whom was wider at the hips than the others.

* * *

Apart from their shared duties that night, ChangMin, JunSu, and YooChun each had their own tasks:

ChangMin was in charge of taking the customer’s orders and serving the food, during which he displayed remarkable memory by never mixing them up even once. JunSu later told YooChun that ChangMin had a freakish ability to remember almost everything that came to his attention. Couple that with his snark and sarcasm and you have a tall order of social torture. It certainly explained the youngest’s "Thou Shalt Not Mess with Shim ChangMin" aura, and YooChun decides to err on the side of caution.

JunSu cleaned tables with efficiency, mind-blowing coordination, and much squealing. In fact, YooChun wondered if the restaurant had a haunted past to explain the random squeaky noises that seemed to plague them at random instances. It wasn’t until JunSu strode past him with a mop in hand and began dance-cleaning some spilled drink did he realize that high-pitched noises were what kept JunSu’s energy-level up. YooChun also steadfastly not-stared at JunSu’s behind when he dance-cleaned, and he wondered if it was healthy to develop a fixation on one of your colleague’s erogenous body parts.

YooChun was left with the relatively simple task of catering to menial requests and bridging the customer with the cashier. (He later thanked the boss for the trust of letting him handle money on his first day, but after a few blank moments YunHo explained that YooChun doesn’t seem very athletic at all, and if he chose to run with the customers’ money both JunSu and ChangMin would be on him in a flash. One glance at ChangMin’s legs and JunSu’s hyperactivity confirmed this to be true.) Though his task slowly acquainted YooChun with how things worked, it also led to an unfortunate oversight: he never had to go into the kitchen, and thus not even once saw the cook the whole night.

It was honestly not that big a deal.

* * *

... until YooChun walks into the locker room – which was really just an empty space with a couple of benches and a four-part closet – and sees a slim figure, pale back turned to him, changing from a fitted white top to something more comfortable. The beautiful (albeit sweaty) blonde hair that fell down to the neck certainly doesn’t help make clear impressions.

YooChun growls, low and seductive, and leans on the doorframe. "Ten thousand won say I'll be speechless when you turn around...'"

YooChun first notices the eyes when the figure turns around: they were large, expressive, certainly very beautiful, and definitely bewildered. They were perched atop a delicate nose. The cherry-red lips were elegantly supple, and the whole picture of beauty was framed with blonde hair and an exquisite jaw line. YooChun growls some more.

The second thing YooChun notices is that instead of boobs, he gets an eyeful of very defined pectoral muscles atop a wondrously flat stomach. And also the lack of boobs.

YooChun thus quickly turns around, speed-walks back to the dining area, sits down, and cradles his head in both hands amidst JunSu’s and ChangMin’s confused stares. He wonders if it’s possible to humiliate himself to everyone else in the staff before the day is over. It certainly seems likely, the way things are going.

"Yah! You pervert!" comes the enraged war cry from the locker-rooms, followed by rampaging footsteps.

YooChun has half the mind to bow and beg for forgiveness, but the slight grin and pronounced friendliness on the cook’s face gave him pause.

YunHo pokes his head out from his office and doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary. "Any fights will result in back-breaking, care of me. JaeJoong, get dressed and let’s go eat dinner."

The cook’s – JaeJoong’s – laugh is completely unselfconscious. He points at YooChun expressively. "Guys! I made Casanova speechless!" he says to the others between peals of laughter as he leans on the wall for support. And to Yochun, "You owe me ten-thousand won."

"Oh." YunHo nods dismissively and retreats into his office.

"Honestly, hyung," ChangMin says, "cut your hair already and we’ll have fewer of these episodes."

"But JaeJoong-hyung looks so pretty with his hair!" JunSu butts in. "Didn’t you think so too, ChangMinnie? Ow!" he exclaims as ChangMin’s pocketbook whacks him on the head.

YooChun tries to convince himself that he may still have some dignity after all. "So this... happens all the time?"

"More often than necessary. Right, ChangMin? Ow!"

"I have enough strength to keep hitting you all night."

JaeJoong nearly doubles up on the floor as he pulls on his sweatshirt. "I don’t see any reason to stop. Right, Casanova?" He winks at YooChun.

YooChun grins and returns fire. "You’re too sexy for your clothes, you sexy, _sexy_ thing." JaeJoong goes over to him and pretends to unbutton his pants, and ChangMin stops pretending to be concerned with his book.

YunHo emerges from the office. "Clearly, hunger has gotten the better of these two. Let’s go eat. My treat to celebrate the new Casanova."

ChangMin’s celebratory hoots and JunSu’s incessant squealing cover the dull thump of JaeJoong lightly whacking YooChun upside the head as YunHo leads the way out.


End file.
